Thursday’s Headlines From Around the Nation
- Traffic is down two-thirds nationally, but empty roads mean that some states are facing a spike in speeding drivers. (Stateline)
- Friend of Streetsblog David Roberts suggests that electrifying the U.S. Postal Service fleet would be a great coronavirus stimulus project, reducing air and noise pollution while creating jobs. (Vox)
- A debunked-by-Streetsblog study about New York City transit’s role in spreading coronavirus put the subway smack in the middle of the culture wars. (City Lab)
- Uber and Lyft drivers who’ve lost income to coronavirus are accusing the companies of slow-walking unemployment benefits. (The Hill)
- CleanTechnica takes a crack at the “slow streets” story. It’s happening in Oakland, Boston, Minneapolis and elsewhere — but not South Florida, where the Miami Herald reports that many condo- and apartment-dwellers have nowhere to go outside in their neighborhoods, and in neighborhoods that do have space, residents are angry about the influx of people.
- Milan is one of Europe’s most-polluted cities, and one of the hardest-hit by COVID-19. It has a plan to rapidly expand biking and walking space on city streets as quarantine measures are lifted. (The Guardian)
- King County Metro buses have started passing up stops when a certain number of people are onboard to help maintain social distancing. (Seattle Times)
- Connecticut rediscovered transit in the past decade, but loss of revenue from the coronavirus pandemic could put the brakes on progress. (Mirror)
- The first two stations of Bay Area Rapid Transit’s expansion into Santa Clara County could open this summer. (East Bay Times)
- Houston's stay-at-home order has delayed testing on a new bus rapid transit line until May. (Chronicle)
- On Earth Day, Vice tells the oral history of how Manhattan residents turned a small vacant lot into a pocket park and community garden in the early 1990s. And Charles Komanoff had his own recollection for Streetsblog NYC.
- This is good for a laugh: Nobody’s driving, but Forbes still thinks parking lots are a great investment.
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